Such vehicles include hatchback vehicles, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and people carriers or multi purpose vehicles (MPVs). In these vehicles the rear seating is used to define the front of a luggage area situated at the rear of the passenger compartment and the rear seating is often able to fold forward to increase the size of the luggage area.
In order to provide customers with increased seating flexibility, a number of vehicles have been designed to accommodate three rows of seating and to provide a number of seating configurations. An example of such a flexible seating arrangement is shown and described in EP-A-0940288. However, when the rear or third row seating is folded a true flat floor is not achieved in this arrangement.
It is known from GB-A-2344282 to provide a seat assembly that is capable of producing a substantially flat floor but this arrangement suffers from the disadvantage that in the folded flat configuration the backrest lies in front of the folded seat cushion which folds forward about a front edge thereof. This requires there to be a large gap in front of the front edge of the seat cushion to allow this folding to occur. U.S. Pat. No. 2,956,837 shows an arrangement where the seat cushion can be folded forward into a folded position and the backrest can be folded with a rearward movement from its normal position into a stowed position in which the backrest lies behind the folded seat cushion However, in this arrangement the backrest moves a substantial distance in order to lie behind an elevated floor section of the vehicle so that there is a substantial gap between the rear edge of the folded seat cushion and the front edge of the stowed backrest. This gap has to be bridged by a specially provided folding shelf which is normally stowed behind the backrest at the front of a luggage compartment behind the seat.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved arrangement of multifunctional vehicle seating that is able to produce a flat rear floor when folded.
According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a foldable seat assembly for a motor vehicle, the seat assembly being movable between a normal passenger seating position and a stowed position and comprising a seat cushion having a an upper seating surface and a base surface, the seat cushion being mounted for pivotal movement about a front transverse axis such that the seat cushion can be folded forward from a normal position corresponding to the normal passenger seating position of the seat assembly into a stowed position corresponding to the stowed position of the seat assembly in which the base surface faces upwards, and a backrest connected to the seat cushion and extending upward from the seat cushion when the seat assembly is in the normal seating position, the backrest having a lower end, an upper end, a front seating surface and a rear surface and being movable from a normal position corresponding to the normal passenger seating position of the seat assembly into a stowed position corresponding to the stowed position of the seat assembly, the lower end of the backrest being arranged to move rearwards as the backrest is moved from its normal position into its stowed position such that, in the stowed position, the backrest lies behind the folded seat cushion, wherein the base surface and the rear surface of the backrest are generally flat and the upper end of the backrest folds forwards as the lower end of the backrest moves rearwards during movement of the backrest from its normal position into its folded position such that, when the seat assembly is in the stowed position, the rear surface of the stowed backrest lies immediately behind the base surface of the folded seat cushion and the rear surface and the base surface are aligned to form a generally flat substantially continuous load bearing surface.
The upper edge of the backrest and a front edge of the seat cushion may be shaped to allow the upper edge of the backrest to nest with the seat cushion when in the stowed position.
The seat assembly may further comprise a position adjustment mechanism arranged to facilitate movement of the seat cushion and backrest between a forward seating position and a rearward seating position. Preferably, the position adjustment mechanism is arranged such that the seat cushion and backrest are lower in the forward seating position than in the rearward seating position. The position adjustment mechanism may include a latching means to selectively latch the seat cushion and backrest in the forward and rearward seating positions.
The seat cushion may be connected to the backrest by a releasable locking means.
The backrest may include a backrest frame assembly comprising a support frame and a pair of support legs, each of the support legs being pivotally connected to the support frame and in use connecting the support frame to a structural part of the motor vehicle. A combination of rotation of the support legs relative to the structural part of the motor vehicle and rotation of the support frame relative to the support legs may be used to produce the rearward movement of the lower end of the backrest.
Each of the support legs may be attached to the structural part of the motor vehicle by means of a support arm forming part of the position adjustment mechanism. The position adjustment mechanism may comprise a pair of front support arms to pivotally connect the seat cushion near to a front edge thereof to the structural part of the motor vehicle and a pair of rear support arms to pivotally connect the support legs to a structural part of the motor vehicle. Conveniently, the seat cushion includes a seat cushion frame to which the front support arms is connected.
The seat assembly may form part of a third row seating. Such third row seating may comprise two separate foldable seat assemblies arranged to form a split bench seat.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a motor vehicle having a roof structure, a floor structure, a front wall, a rear wall and two side walls defining a passenger compartment and two or more rows of seats mounted in the passenger compartment wherein the rearmost of the rows of seats includes at least one foldable seat assembly in accordance with said first aspect of the invention.
The motor vehicle may have three rows of seating, there being a first row seating mounted at the front of the passenger compartment, a second row seating mounted to the rear of the first row seating and a third row seating mounted to the rear of the second row seating.
The motor vehicle may further comprise a luggage space, the rear surface of the backrest of the or each foldable seat assembly, when in the normal seating position, defining a front wall of the luggage space. The length of the luggage space may be increased by moving the or each foldable seat assembly from a rearward position to a forward position. The motor vehicle may further comprise a floor structure and, in the region of the luggage space, a false floor spaced above the floor structure, the lower end portion of each backrest of each foldable seat assembly, when in the stowed position, being located between the false floor and an adjacent portion of the floor structure and each backrest being shaped so as to form in combination with the false floor a generally flat load bearing surface extending from the rear of the passenger compartment to a forward edge of the folded backrest. The false floor may be pivotally connected along a rear edge thereof to allow the false floor to fold upwardly during stowage of the backrest. Alternatively, each backrest, when in the stowed position, may form a flat load bearing surface extending from the rear of the passenger compartment to a forward edge of the folded backrest. The luggage space may include a well which is covered when the or all of the backrests are in the stowed position.
The base surface of the seat cushion of the or each foldable seat assembly, when in its stowed position, is preferably aligned with rear surface of the stowed backrest of that foldable seat assembly.
In one preferred arrangement, the second row seating includes at least one re-configurable seat assembly comprising a seat cushion having a seating surface and a rear surface and a backrest having a seating surface and a back surface and the or each re-configurable seat assembly is movable between a seating position and a stored position wherein, when in the stored position, the back surface of the backrest of the or each re-configurable seat assembly is aligned with a corresponding stowed foldable seat assembly so as to provided a generally flat substantially continuous surface from the rear of the passenger compartment to a forward edge of the backrest of the stowed re-configurable seat assembly. Preferably, when the or each re-configurable seat assembly is in the stored position and a corresponding foldable seat assembly is in the stowed position, the back surface of the backrest of the or each re-configurable seat assembly may be aligned with the corresponding flat base surface of the seat cushion of the foldable seat assembly and the flat rear surface of the backrest of the corresponding foldable seat assembly so as to provided a flat substantially continuous surface from the rear wall of the passenger compartment to a forward edge of the stowed re-configurable seat assembly backrest. The or each re-configurable seat assembly may be further movable from the seating position in which the seat cushion is arranged substantially horizontal and the backrest extends upwards from the seat cushion to a table position in which the backrest is folded forwardly onto the seat cushion to form a raised substantially horizontal surface. The or each re-configurable seat assembly may be movable from the table position to the stored position by movement of the seat cushion and backrest of the re-configurable seat assembly in a downward direction. Each seat cushion may be connected to a structural part of the motor vehicle by a collapsible linkage including a locking mechanism used to hold the seat cushion in a raised position and which when released allows the seat cushion and the backrest to be moved downwards.
The or each re-configurable seat assembly may be movable from the table position to a folded forward position by rotating the folded seat assembly about a transverse axis located near to a front edge of the seat cushion so that the respective seat cushion and backrest are arranged substantially vertically. The second row seating assembly may comprise a centre seat assembly and two outer re-configurable seat assemblies both of which are movable from the table position to the folded forward position.
The or each re-configurable seat assembly may be selectively securable in the seating position towards a rear edge of the seat cushion by a release mechanism and be movable from the table position to the folded forward position by releasing the release mechanism and rotating the seat cushion and the backrest about the transverse axis into the folded forward position.
The re-configurable seat assembly may also be used in vehicles other than those according to the second aspect of the invention.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method of converting a motor vehicle from a normal seating configuration to a load carrying configuration, the motor vehicle having a passenger compartment in which is mounted a first row seating comprising at least one seat assembly, a second row seating comprising a least one seat assembly having a seat cushion and a backrest having a generally flat back surface, and a third row seating comprising a least one seat assembly having a seat cushion and a backrest, the method comprising the steps of folding forward the seat cushion of the or each seat assembly of the third row seating, moving the backrest of the or each seat assembly of the third row seating to a stowed position in which the backrest lies behind the folded seat cushion, folding forward the backrest of the or each seat assembly of the second row seating onto its respective seat cushion and moving the or each folded seat assembly of the second row seating into a lowered stored position, wherein the backrest of the or each stowed seat assembly of the third row seating has a generally flat rear surface having an upper end and a the lower end and is arranged so that when the backrest is moved from the normal seating position into the stowed position the upper end is folded forwards as the lower end is moved rearwards such that, when the seat assembly is in the stowed position, the rear surface of the stowed backrest lies immediately behind the base surface of the folded seat cushion so that the rear surface and the base surface are aligned, the backrest of the or each seat assembly of the second row seating being aligned with the seat cushion and backrest of the or each stowed seat assembly of the third row seating to produce a generally flat substantially continuous load bearing surface from the first row seating to the rear of the passenger compartment.